August 1, 2011

Pols: Throw Net on offenders

Another lawmakers with his head stuck in a hole in the ground, if he would study who is committing sex crimes he would find its not people on the registry. Guess he wants to spawn more hysteria to get folks to vote for him. Facebook removed all known registered sex offenders, so who will his bill catch?
8-1-2011 Massachusetts:

A lawman and lawmakers hoping to guard children against Facebook-friending sex fiends are pushing a bill that would force the state’s most dangerous predators to register their e-mail addresses, Twitter handles and other online aliases with the Sex Offender Registry Board.

“We’re just trying to protect young kids, give parents another tool and punish people who are preying upon our kids,” said Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey. “It’s that simple.”

Under the bill, Level 3 sex offenders would have to report all their electronic monikers — including Facebook names, blogs and message-board screen names — just as they do their home addresses. The legislation has 12 co-sponsors and could get a hearing after lawmakers return from their August break.

“The concern revolves around the fact that you have sex offenders using these identities to track people to commit a crime against ... and trying to solicit children into very bad situations,” said state Rep. Tackey Chan (D-Quincy). “We’re trying to bring the sex offender registry up to the 21st century.’

Failing to register the screen names would be a criminal offense, which could result in both jail time and fines, Morrissey said.

“It becomes self-policing,” said the district attorney. “People see the address, they’re going to report it. It doesn’t mean they can’t communicate on the Internet. . . . It’s just an attempt to add one more layer of protection to the public and the unsuspecting person.”

Other states have gone even further in trying to rein in Web-surfing sex offenders. Laws in North Carolina, Illinois and Louisiana make it illegal for convicted sex offenders to have social-networking accounts, including Facebook and MySpace [website]. California is considering a similar bill.

Facebook itself banished more than 5,000 sex offenders from its site two years ago.

“This is in many ways a reflection of the world we live in,” said Chan. ..Source.. by Chris Cassidy

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let me see here there doing all this and gee next year is election time.From what i can see this D.A. has dreams of re-election or perhaps a better position and all in the name of saving children.Can you say political grand standing ? i knew you could !.

Anonymous said...

Let me see, They are doing this to "punish" "predators" (level III FSO's) who are "preying on Children"???? Is this a punitive measure?? If so, would it not be unconstitutional/double jeopardy?? And why must it be assumed that ALL persons required to register as a teir III "sex Offender" are intent on "preying upon children"??

Daniel Goichman said...

these are the same politicians who want to pass laws that punish all sex offenders regardless of initial offense. might as well sue this one too keep suing eventually someone will get the message that they are not protecting anyone

Anonymous said...

Any parent who knows how to be a parent will monitor ALL of thier childs internet activity, not just social networking. Law makers continue to blame any and all crimes against children on FSO's.
Athough it's a TOUGH SELL, we need to inform parents everywhere of the FACTS about predators, internet or otherwise.
They need to understand that FSO's
are the least likely people to be a threat to thier children. Lawmakers and the media have caused the public to believe false
and misleading statistics about all FSO's when in actuality most new sex offenses will be committed by persons NOT on the public registry. If only we could start a
nationwide ad campaign to tell all people the true FACTS stated by our own Government officials. I mean all the info is part of FOI and available to anyone.